Ten tips to make an article FA
A possible recipe for success
Some introductory remarks
- What is a featured article?: A featured article is considered to be one of the best articles in Wikipedia. Featured status is determined by Wikipedia's editors, who review articles nominated at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates (WP:FAC) for prose quality, accuracy, neutrality, completeness, stability and style according to Wikipedia's featured article criteria. A small bronze star (
) on the top right corner of an article's page indicates that the article is featured (see a list with all the FAs here). As of 9 April 2012, there were 3,530 featured articles, of a total (as of today) of 6,869,288 articles on Wikipedia. Thus, only about one in 1,040 articles at Wikipedia have been assessed as meeting featured article criteria. From that you might conclude that it is very difficult to write a FA. No, it isn't! Just focus on your efforts, do not be disappointed by any (temporary) setbacks, do not be discouraged by the many myths that surround FAs, and read the following advice!
- Is it worth writing a FA?: Why should any Wikipedian strive to create FAs? Is it worth writing a FA? The answer is definitely yes, because in this way Wikipedia is enriched with more articles of high quality that every person around the planet can read for free. It is not an exaggeration to say that by writing FAs you spread your knowledge, and you thus make the world a better place!